by Sean Adelman
Jason looked in the rear view mirror and spoke to Lily, “Did you want to ask something?”
“Yes. Yes. Can I read Aunt Debbie the poem I wrote?”
Jason said, “I forgot to mention, Debbie, when you called, that Lily has been writing poetry.”
“Well in that case, Lily, I would love to hear it.”
“Yeah, okay. Roses are red, violets are blue, my life is wonderful, and so are you! That’s all mine. Well, Dad did help a little. I have a whole notebook of poems I’ve been writing.”
“That’s great, Lily. We’ll have to look at them together this week.”
“I forgot,” Lily answered, “we have to make cookies for Santa today. I was going to leave a poem for Santa as well.”
“I would love, love, love to make cookies.” Debbie then redirected to Jason, “So now you and Judy are making cookies?” Debbie raised her eyebrows and winked at Jason.
Jason replied, “Very funny.” He began to relax a little. They were getting close to the condo and he hadn’t noticed anyone following him. The deck where Jason parked was also used for parking in the surrounding businesses but he had a key card that allowed him to park in a special tenants section. The security guys thought this was safest. After parking, the three of them took the elevator to their unit on the fourth floor.
It was a fairly modern unit with a big open kitchen. There were three bedrooms and the third was being used as office space. Jason noticed that Judy had moved things around so that Debbie could sleep there. The desk was off to one side with a sleeper sofa against the opposing wall.
Debbie left her bag in the room and asked Jason, “Where’s Judy?”
Jason responded, “I don’t know, she may have gone to the store.”
The kitchen had mixing bowls and flour on the countertop. Debbie walked over with Lily in tow.
“Hey guys!” Judy came in through the front door holding a small bag of groceries.
Jason moved over to take the bag from Judy. “What did we forget?”
“It’s hard to make chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips. We can’t disappoint Santa.”
With her hands free, Judy moved over to give Debbie a hug. Debbie smiled and hugged her back. Jason watched intensely as their first grappling was awkward, but gently eased into a comfortable-looking squeeze. They had been roommates and friends before Jason had even met Rachel. He suspected it would be just a matter of time before they were old friends again.
Lily hopped up and down and grabbed Jason’s arm. “Let’s make cookies. Come on, Dad, come on.”
Jason didn’t know anything about cookies. “Uh, well…”
“Why don’t we mix the batter up for the cookies?” Judy interjected. “Then we can have lunch while they are cooking.” She held up the recipe card.. Jason knew that neither of them really knew how to bake so he was glad Santa would be the guinea pig. Debbie jumped in with both feet so that the three girls were noisily baking before long. Judy read the card, Debbie gathered ingredients, and Lily mixed. The spoon Lily was using was almost as big as her arm so she had to use both hands when it got thick. Jason didn’t want to get in the way so he sat in the living area and happily watched the three of them. Jason had a brief flashback to Seattle a Christmas more than ten years ago, except it was Rachel and not Lily who was stirring things up. He missed those days so much: flour all over Rachel’s face, laughter in her eyes, and the passionate kissing that followed. They had burned more than one batch of cookies….
Lily’s laughter brought him back to the present. The kitchen was awash with mixing bowls and eggshells, and before anything went into the oven, all of the girls were covered in flour. Lily was given the new task of using a spoon to make balls that she put on the cookie sheet, which she did very well. The kitchen went from looking like a scene in a bad Christmas movie to the wonderful smell of chocolate chip cookies. Jason no longer wanted Santa to be the first to try one.
It didn’t take long to eat lunch so everyone decided on a walk while the cookies cooled. There was a park close to the condo so the four of them walked there since the weather was holding. Judy began to push Lily on the swings.
Debbie and Jason sat on one of the benches nearby. “Jason, how old is Lily now?”
“She’s ten, almost eleven actually. I can’t believe she’s in the fifth grade.”
“I know a little about Down syndrome, but not a lot. She seems to be doing great. I mean that poem and all…how is she doing academically?”
“She’s actually doing really well. Her memory is amazing which helps in math and reading. Her biggest problem is comprehension. She can read well and has a huge vocabulary but sometimes needs a little extra help. She knows all of her times tables but has issues with word problems. Every time we think she can’t do something, she proves us wrong. I don’t know what will happen when she grows up but we just keep trying to challenge her.”
“You said we. You mean you and Judy?” Debbie asked.
Jason was worried that Judy would overhear them talking about her, but she made no indication that she did and continued to push Lily on the swing. “Yeah, I know it’s a little weird. With everything that’s happened, we’ve become our own little unit here. To be honest we don’t think about it much, at least I don’t. Getting through each day is enough for me right now.”
“Well, Judy is great. I can’t imagine why she would hang out with you. I take that back. It must be Lily.”
“Thanks. You’re so funny.”
Debbie’s voice deepened. “Seriously though, how is your work coming?”
Jason looked to Lily before answering. She had coerced Judy to move over to the teeter-totter. “We have a lot of work to do but we’ve made a lot of progress already. The lab is amazing.”
“You mentioned briefly that there was some extra genetic material you were testing. Is that still the case?”
“Yeah, it’s in a part of the chromosome that doesn’t make anything that we know of, but this is different. We’ve tried to make it into proteins using bacteria to no avail so far. I am most excited about the mice. We have figured out how to modify the extra DNA to insert it into the native 21st chromosome so that it is coded. We just have to see what happens now.”
Jason noticed Debbie had grown quiet. She seemed to be on the verge of crying. “What’s up, Debbie?”
“You just remind me of Nate. I don’t think about him as often but I still miss the hell out of him.”
“Deb, I know. I’ll miss him, too.”
Debbie dropped her voice. “Jason, I’ve been doing a little research on the side. I think I know how I can get into Gibson Labs. I’m convinced those guys are responsible.”
“How could you possibly know any of that, other than what you and I have already talked about?”
“The internship I have with Amazon next year that I told you about? It’s because I’m writing security software that they’re considering me. They like what I’m doing, so I’ve worked on a few projects with them and will essentially be a contractor with them this fall. I called it an internship, but they’re actually paying me adequately and may hire me if all goes well. Anyway, when Gibson Labs was young, they needed more flexibility in their computer servers and expanded much faster than they thought.”
“So what does this have to do with anything?”
“Calm down, Jason, I’m getting there. The point is, they needed extra computer server space before they could expand their own, so they rented excess server time from Amazon.”
“Oh, so you are wiggling your way through Amazon to dig up dirt on Gibson?”
“I have a little already.”
“You have to be careful, Debbie. Gibson will know it’s you and Amazon will fire you.”
“Not really. I’ve created a corporation with the help of Gerald that contracts computer security work who I sold my software to. I am legally just a student working for them. Or actually I’m a student working for myself. It’s just that no one knows it.”
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“I had no idea how sneaky you are. You’re scaring me.”
“Good, well not good, but I’m going to take that as a compliment. I do need one more favor from our friend. I was hoping to talk with him tomorrow.”
“That’s enough with this kind of stuff, Deb. Let’s go collect Judy and Lily and go work on some Christmas Eve festivities.”
Jason turned his attention back to Lily who was now hanging off of Judy like a superman cape. She was clearly too big to be doing that and although Judy’s face was purple she made no effort to remove her. Jason and Debbie walked over to the other two and Jason lifted Lily down from Judy’s back so they could walk home.
Jason was very excited about the Christmas Eve activities that were going to happen after Lily’s bedtime. Since the following day would be the big dinner, Jason ordered pizza and they all watched Christmas movies and drank eggnog until bedtime.
Lily prattled on and on about how excited she was to see Santa, so she didn’t fight him over going to bed.
Jason didn’t want to do too much for Christmas, but it had been such a tough year he wanted to make sure Santa came. He had always been on his own so this was the first Christmas Santa had elves to help him. The elves started filling the stockings with goodies, putting out cookies, and drinking too much eggnog. Santa found a great deal on skis this year so they could take advantage of being in Colorado. Lily was still completely convinced that Santa was real and Jason wanted to keep that innocence alive as long as possible. He stacked the skis against the wall beside the tree and made a little frame triangle with the poles over her boots. Jason stood back to admire his work when the poles fell over making a crash on the floor. Debbie and Judy immediately became still as the three of them stopped to listen to see if Lily was awake. After what seemed like an hour, they settled in again, as it didn’t appear that she had awoken. Santa finished setting up the rest of the presents with his elves helping him. By the time they were done, it had taken much longer than Jason thought it would so everyone was ready to go to bed and have dreams of sugarplums. And try not to have nightmares about Gibson Labs.
“Wake up, wake up. Santa came!”
Lily shook Jason by rolling his shoulders back and forth. Jason had been awake for a little while but was playing ‘possum just so Lily could have some fun waking him up.
Jason yawned and stretched his arms. “Okay, let’s go see if Judy and Debbie are up.”
He grabbed Lily’s hand and led her into the living area. Debbie and Judy were already sitting in chairs around the tree drinking coffee. Lily ran right past them to her stocking which was on the ground next to everyone else’s. There was no fireplace so Santa apparently had improvised. Lily’s stocking was red with a fine lace around the top that spelled her name. It was stuffed with fruit, candy, and small gifts. Instead of taking things out piece by piece she picked it up and dumped the whole contents on the floor so she could pick out what she wanted. Jason sat back and waited patiently until she noticed the skis.
Lily was so engulfed in playing with her stocking that Jason felt safe getting a cup of coffee. While in the kitchen, he heard Lily squealing.
“They’re pink, Daddy. Come look!”
Sitting next to the tree were the skis and boots. The skis were pink with red edges. The boots were a light red. Lily was going to have some serious style going on. Jason knew Santa got it right when he saw her face. Lily loved them.
“Daddy, when are we going skiing?”
“Maybe tomorrow, sweetheart, We have to go over Miss Anne’s house for dinner tonight.”
“Okay. I wish Jerry could go skiing with us.”
“I know, sweetheart. He may not go skiing with us, but you can still play together. Maybe we can get one of those video games that you can pretend to ski with.”
“Those games are not cool, Dad.”
“All right, just play cool games then.”
The remainder of the morning passed quietly with Lily playing with her new toys and everyone snacking here and there on the goodies from their stockings. Christmas was one of those days where time just slowed and everyone seemed to be enjoying being in the moment. As with most things, the moment did move on. Soon it was time to get in the car to go see the Wilson’s. With the four of them going they decided to take the Subaru and Lily seemed happy to have Debbie sit with her in the backseat. Debbie also seemed to be filling her tank of happiness with Lily in the backseat, after the months in a cave of darkness she had described to him. Debbie was finally starting to act alive again.
Debbie was appropriately impressed with the Wilson’s house as they pulled in front of the main entrance as apparent by the gasping that emanated from the backseat. Anne was already outside waiting to say hi when they pulled in.
“Merry Christmas, guys.” Anne was wearing a red skirt with a loud Christmas sweater and a smile from ear to ear.
Judy was out first. “Merry Christmas to you, too. You look very happy.”
“We got an unexpected gift. Jerry was given a clean bill of health to join us for dinner tonight. His labs and X-rays were finally clear.”
“That’s great, Anne.” Judy gave her a hug.
Anne led them into the house and introduced Debbie to Gerald.
Gerald took the opportunity to acknowledge that they had already spoken. “Hello, Mrs. Amsler. I appreciated our conversation. I hope things are working out the way you intended.”
“Yes, sir, it is. Thanks so much. I do have one more question, but I’ll wait to ask you after dinner though.”
“Call me Gerald and yes, I am happy to talk, but I agree: after dinner. We aren’t here for business.”
Anne led them upstairs. Jason could see that Debbie was appropriately shocked and amazed at Jerry’s glass prison. Lily changed into a sterile gown in the tiny bathroom down the hallway and went into his room. Jason wondered when Jerry could come out for dinner.
Anne seemed to be reading his mind. “Jerry just wanted to play with Lily a little without his mask before dinner. We still need to minimize his exposure tonight since it is still a little early since his pneumonia.”
Jason smiled. “Let’s let them play and go downstairs and visit.”
“We have a half hour or so before dinner. I need to make sure everything is cooked to the correct temperature for Jerry.”
Anne led them back downstairs where Gerald was sitting in his big comfy chair having a glass of wine. Debbie and Jason sat with Gerald while Judy went to help Anne in the kitchen.
Gerald raised his glass. “Do you guys want some wine?”
Both Jason and Debbie nodded the affirmative. Jason got up from his chair. “Why don’t you guys let me get it? I’ll go bug Anne so you two can talk a little.”
Gerald nodded and smiled. “I guess I’ll let you.”
As soon as Jason left the room, Debbie acknowledged Gerald’s help. “Thanks again. I couldn’t have set up my corporation without you.” “I was right about Gibson, I just needed to get the info to prove it.” She paused. “Sorry, I know we agreed not to talk till after dinner.”
“No, it’s okay. I was very happy to hear you were joining us. I know Jason’s been worried about you. I can’t say that I know what Gibson has done or not done with your family, but what I do know is that he is a pariah in the business world. Most people think of him as the leader of a medical company that makes vaccines and cures disease. What I know is that he’s used his capital to buy up some patents that he’s using to leverage other companies. He will even apply for patents he doesn’t have just to slow up other competitors while he works his investors. His medical corporation is just the home page for a small army of other companies working behind the scenes.”
“How do you know about this?”
“One of the companies that I do a lot of business with was sued by Gibson for a patent infringement which delayed their release of a new Bluetooth speaker system. Gibson dropped the suit, but not until they sold a similar system to a Chinese company thr
ough one of their subsidiaries. They held up the release just enough to corner part of the market with their own device.”
“Wow, I haven’t even begun to look at their subsidiaries. When a renowned businessman like yourself uses a word like pariah to describe another businessman, that’s not usually a good sign.”
Gerald looked directly at Debbie. “No, it’s not. Now what can I do for you?”
“During my time at Amazon, I’ve been trying to glean enough information to get an idea of what’s going on with Gibson Labs. Amazon’s security was too tight for me to get anything other than some very basic info on Gibson’s projects. Now that I know what I’m looking for, getting access to Gibson’s internal servers will help me prove everything.”
“That’s good, Debbie, but we don’t have much time to talk. What do you need?”
“I will never get hired by Gibson as Debbie Amsler, but Erin Sydney, the alter ego who owns my company, might just have a chance. A personal reference from you would go a long way towards getting Erin inside. I have created a security breach on their servers which I am hoping will put them in the market for Erin’s services.”
“There are a lot of security companies. Why will they want you, I mean Erin?”
“First off, a letter from you will help and second, the breach I created will be prevented by my software. Amazon loves it.”
“All right Debbie, I’ll happily write you a letter. I have another friend that can drop your name with Gibson as well, and increase the odds a little. If you are as good as you sound, I might have to give you a job here when things have settled.”
Jason came back into the living area with a couple glasses of wine. “Anne gave me too many choices so it took longer to pick a bottle than it would have been to drink it.”
Debbie took a glass from Jason. “Drinking it fast isn’t the point. I suspect Anne has good taste.”